220 SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY. 



This sin did Bacon commit — and for this he was justly execrated by his 

 countrymen — nay, he was in daily hazard of being assassinated — and 

 the fear of such an event occasioned the publication of his "Apology." 

 Well does the Lecturer observe — 



*' He did that which, if necessary, others ought to have done. If the clamours 

 of the multitude required to be stilled, he was not the man who should have 

 undertaken the task, in itself of no essential importance to the state, but in 

 him a violation not only of the sacred ties of friendship and of gratitude, but of the 

 most solemn of all human obligations — the silence that should hallow the sanctuary 

 of a friend's tomb. — Elizabeth survived her favourite scarcely a year. Grief 

 and remorse for his fate accompanied her to the grave." 



The Lecturer next proceeded to comment on Bacon's long meditated 

 work, **The progress and advancement of learning.'* He stated that — 



"The great aim of this treatise, no less original in the design than happy in the 

 execution, was to survey accurately the whole state and extent of the intellectual 

 world — what parts of it had been unsuccessfully cultivated — what lay still neglected 

 and unknown — and by what methods discoveries and improvements might be made 

 for the further benefit of mankind. By exposing the errors and imperfections of our 

 knowledge, he led mankind into the only right way of reforming the one or sup- 

 plying the other : he taught them to acknowledge their blindness, and to feel and 

 know their wants. He went further — he himself pointed out general methods of 

 correction and improvement in the whole circle of arts and sciences." 



A treatise " On the wisdom of the Ancients" was Bacon's next publi- 

 cation — and on this the Lecturer thus commented — 



" This work bears the stamp of an original and inventive genius. He strikes 

 out an unbeaten track for himself, and appears quite new on an old subject ; and 

 if we cannot persuade ourselves that there is all the physical, moral, and political 

 meaning veiled under those fables of antiquity which he has discovered in them, we 

 must own that it required no common penetration to be mistaken with such an air 

 of probability. Tliough it may remain doubtful whether the ancients were quite so 

 knowing as he attempts to shew they were, this very attempt places beyond doubt 

 the variety and depth of his own knowledge." 



The interest of the Earl of Buckingham, it now appears, obtained for 

 him that appointment which had been for many years the cherished 

 desire of his heart. On the Chancellor's resignation, the seals were 

 given to Bacon, with the title of Lord Keeper, on the 7th of March, 161/. 

 In the beginning of 1G19, he was created Lord High Chancellor of 

 England, shortly after, I3aron Verulam, and in the following year 

 Viscount St. Alban's. There could be little doubt that he owed this 

 advancement entirely to the favour of Buckingham. 



In the year 1620 he gave to the public his ** Novum Organon," as a 

 second part to his " Grand Instauration of the Sciences'' — a work that 

 for twelve years together he had been methodizing, altering, and polish- 

 ing, till he had laboured the whole into a series of aphorisms as it now 

 appears. Of all his writings this seems to have undergone the strictest 

 revision, and to be finished with the severest judgment. 



The Lecturer next alluded to the sad reverse of fortune which over- 

 took him. He was impeached on twenty-eight articles, found guilty 

 by the Parliament, and sentenced on the Ist of May, 1621, to undergo 

 a fine of 40,000Z. ; to be imprisoned in the Tower during the King's 

 pleasure ; to be for ever incapable of any oflice, place, or employment 

 in the Commonwealth ; and never to sit again in Parliament, or come 

 within the verge of the Court. After a short confinement in the Tower, 

 however, the King restored him to his liberty, and forgave the fine in 

 which the Parliament had amerced him. About three years afterwards. 



